Two Intercontinental properties to open in Egypt by mid-2003

InterContinental‘s new resort on Egypt’s Red Sea coast and a $600 million development at the heart of Cairo will come under the spotlight when Six Continents Hotels highlights its regional development plans at next week’s Mediterranean Travel Fair in the Egyptian capital.  

The 450-room InterContinental Garden Reef Resort Sharm Al-Sheikh will become the sixth InterContinental property in Egypt when it opens next month. Opening in the first half of 2003, CityStars Heliopolis Cairo combines shopping, entertainment, office and residential facilities, as well new InterContinental and Holiday Inn hotels, according to a company press release.  

The new InterContinental resort at Sharm Al-Sheikh and the two new CityStars hotels form part of a major development program in Egypt where the UK-based hotel group will have 16 properties under management by the end of next year, said Raymond Khalife, president of Six Continents Hotels, Middle East and Africa.  

The company boosted its Egyptian presence earlier this year by taking over management of three hotel properties in Alexandria. These are now operating as the Inter Continental Windsor Palace Alexandria, the InterContinental Le Metropole Alexandria and the Holiday Inn Resort Alexandria.  

Serving the inbound, outbound and intra-regional markets, Mediterranean Travel Fair takes place at Cairo International Convention and Exhibition Center from September 17-19, 2002. It focuses on the non-European Union countries of the larger Mediterranean area, incorporating Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus and Turkey.  

Six Continents Hotels manages 64 InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn properties across the Middle East region. In Egypt, two more new InterContinental resorts open before the end of next year at Taba Heights and Soma Bay, while the country’s fifth Holiday Inn Resort opens later this year at Taba.  

Six Continents PLC of the United Kingdom, owns, manages, leases or franchises more than 3,270 hotels and 512,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories around the world. — (menareport.com) 

© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)